Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Rangers ?

Each time I see the topic start I wonder why we tend to need Rangers in the wilderness, we live in a civil society by choice , would we then not accept the rules and follow, most wanted the wilderness to be a solitude experience free of the constraints of society, challange the outdoors on our own strenght and skill .So when we walk around the portal see trash, shit on the walls in the bathrooms and parked cars in the road, food not stored,and people leaving members of their group on the mountain and request a "rescue because they don't have the car keys" and someone should do something , maybe we really didn't want to take care of our selves? Doug

Doug, your spot on as usual. Thanks for adding your perspective.

SS, interesting story but what about followup reporting. Why would three people go hide in the woods overnight if they were perfectly inncocent, I know some will say the intimidation of being shot at but that dog don't hunt.

http://home.nps.gov/applications/release/Detail.cfm?ID=8
" '... few consider the courage and commitment it takes to put your life on the line to protect the National Parks and our visitors.' Makuakane-Jarrell is the fourth National Park Service ranger to be murdered in the line of duty over the past three decades."

Frankly, i have no problems with the rangers. everytime im there, they have been very nice and helpful. always telling me how far i am from the summit. so cheers to them!

Just wanted to add that the intention of the link above was to make the point that probably most of the people who take up the job think that they're getting the "Dream" job. This unfortunate soul (the Ranger) had to take the life of another - something he probably never thought he'd have to do.

Found some followup articles in LA papers by googling Tapia Park. Ranger is on admin leave, SOP for an OIS, deceased man has criminal history of assaulting police officer, resisting arrest and auto theft, witnesses (other 3 in car) say Ranger panicked and shot the man deliberately. What a mess, hopefully truth comes out for all involved. Not a pretty picture.

BTW - this ranger was a California State Park Ranger, not a federal employee.

I drive by this park at least 4 days a week, luckily not on the day it happened. I've been all around there and on the backbone trailhead just down the road, and never had a problem with rangers. It is all over the local news and I find it unfortunate that the way the story is being reported makes the ranger out to be the one at fault, and the people that have a criminal history/ran and hid from rangers and police/ignored orders to stop/tried to take out a ranger with a car as poor innocent victims.

The ABC news station was showing an interview with the driver's (guy that was shot) sister, I believe. She said that her brother was pulling over and had his hands up when the ranger shot him. That's a little hard to believe.

I love it, the three completely credible witnesses in the car (read: friends of the punk who tried to kill a LE officer) says that their now deceased boy scout, err, friend was doing the right thing and complying.

I don't know if everyone else in California heard about the CHP officer who was just killed? He worked in the Placerville office(20 minutes from me) and was a 22 year veteran who was killed by a career criminal. To add insult to injury he just plead not guilty to running the officer over whilst going 90-mph and leading local LE on a 40 mile high speed chase. Yet he's says he's not guilty. Some people have no respect for LE whether it's in life or death.